"Generally, if you're going to make a departmentwide purchase, you would probably qualify for a higher level of volume discount," said Amy Konary, an analyst at IDC.

Lack of Tracking System

Most DOE units also did not effectively track their software licenses and related use, Friedman said. For instance, officials at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico acknowledged that they could have saved US$800,000 by more effectively managing software acquisition and maintenance.

Konary noted that enterprise licenses could solve such management problems. "It gets everybody on the same renewal schedule, which makes administration easier," she said. "There's definitely a cost of administration when you've got lots of different license contracts."

Friedman also said that various agencies bought encryption software licenses and paid annual maintenance fees but never used the products.